Ward of the Sky
by Sandshrew777
Summary: Vaan should be having the time of his life on this journey, but instead he's feeling overwhelmed. Luckily, Penelo is there to help him out of his funk. Inspired by the cutscene that plays when the party arrives at the Phon Coast for the first time.


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**Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy, or any of its related indicia. I think that belongs to Square Enix.**

**Author's Note: I haven't finished the game yet - at the time I wrote this, I mean. I'll finish the game...y'know, eventually. I like it enough, anyway. Please enjoy, please review, and don't forget to floss.**

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Vaan smiled. His toes were tickling the wet sand and Penelo was giggling and everything just felt _right_.

Nothing had been right lately. They'd just come out of the Salikawood. There were Malboros and Wild Chocobos and those weird Pumpkin Heads and...it was just all too much for him. He was still a little city boy and the further they got from Rabanastre, the more he felt like that silly, stupid little boy.

He'd wanted to be a Sky Pirate then. How silly that seemed now. How could he ever be a Pirate when he could barely escape from a Malboro alive? He and Penelo had gotten separated from the rest of the party and before he knew it, they were fighting for their lives against one of those things. It reared up for one of its breath attacks and he'd barely had time to shout a warning to Penelo before he ducked down beneath his shield to try and ward it off.

When he thought it was over, he poked out from behind it and saw Penelo moving in slow motion. She'd been hit.

He knew he couldn't do this without her, but there wasn't enough time for him to cast Esuna on her and fix her wounds with Curaga AND take down the Malboro that was coming down on her. So he did the only thing that made sense.

He ran in front of the Malboro, in front of Penelo, and took the attack that was meant for her. It hurt - it hurt bad - but he sliced back with his sword anyway. He had to trust that Penny could heal herself, although it would take a while, and to do that he had to distract the enemy.

Within seconds Vaan was in over his head. It was baring down on him and he was slashing and blocking as best as he could, but he was limping and there was blood in his eyes and it was just all so much and -

- and then there was Penny, ramming her spear through the Malboro, and just like that it was over. The thing gave a last lurch, collapsed, and its body turned to dying sparkles heading for the sky.

Vaan collapsed on the branch and barely noticed the white blur of energy that radiated through him like a reversed infection. He barely saw Penelo helping him to his feet and leading him back to the calling voices of Basch and Ashe. Penelo didn't say what happened, just that they had gone off exploring because they thought they'd found a new path but it hadn't panned out. Nobody questioned her.

Now, Vaan watched Penelo dashing into the waves and back when they got too close. It wasn't too much of a stretch for him to see this girl as an accomplished liar. After all, she'd gotten him out of countless scrapes when all he'd had to do was shut his mouth and keep walking. (Of course, he never did, and Penelo was usually always there to bail him out...or Cure him when he came back to Migelo's.) She was no innocent little girl anymore. She hadn't been for a long, long time, and as they traveled on and on it seemed that she got less and less innocent. Penelo could Blind and Berserk and Slow an enemy in the amount of time it took Vaan to even think of doing such a thing.

And yet here she was, giggling as the tide needled her unarmored legs.

She was amazing.

"Come on, Vaan! Get off your butt and have some fun!" she yelled over to him, waving and laughing.

He slid to his bare feet on the sand and meandered over to her, going slower and slower until she finally gave up and darted at him, yanking him down into the shallow water. He shrieked a very unmanly shriek as he overbalanced, but made sure to take her giggling self with him.

She landed atop him in the water, in his lap, and for a moment she was looking up at him and he was looking down at her and he thought he felt the familiar urge to lean down and tap her lips ever so lightly with his.

But it wasn't that, he realized as he resisted the urge, as she climbed off of him and helped him to his feet. He'd felt the urge to just sit there in the water with her and hold her, even as the tide threatened to wrap the shallow waters around them both - and neither he nor the tide would ever let go.

He slung an arm around her shoulders instead and led her back to the beach so that they could dry out a little. It was the city boy in him, really, the practical city boy who knew that wet shoes could lead to dangerous infections if you didn't dry them out quickly enough; who never saw the insides of tree villages or mines or caves or jungles or even been to the coast and the beach, just the city sewers; who wanted to be someone amazing and probably would never even get close.

So he settled for lounging on the sand with Penelo, his hands behind his head, looking up at the clouds and wondering what they looked like. They were imposters, those clouds of his, little city boys who thought they could be Sky Pirates when they were just clouds.

Just boys. Just a stupid, silly boy.

Then Penelo poked him, and he poked her back, and soon they were tickling each other like silly little boys and girls on the streets of Rabanastre. Vaan smiled evilly as he attacked her stomach, listening to her giggle with half-delight, half-something else entirely.

And it all just felt so _right._

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End file.
